Negative Blast – Echo Planet

Simply put; Echo Planet is a rip-roaring walk down memory lane for me. It’s a hard-hitting hardcore punk album that manages to capture the zeitgeist of the mid-noughties’ punk scene, procuring all of its greatest attributes along the way. If you’re a fan of bands like The Bronx, Fucked Up, or Paint it Black, this will satisfy your needs in every conceivable way. A ferocious banger in every sense of the word, and it wastes absolutely none of your time while doing it.

Orsartag – Found Wisdom: Symphonic Tribute to Burzum

Found Wisdom: Symphonic Tribute to Burzum is a novel idea, but one that works really well. Taking various numbers from across Burzum’s broad body of work, this album sets out to give you a fresh perspective on these (mostly) beloved tracks. Admittedly, the album is at its strongest when it is reinterpreting Burzum’s heavier side – namely the golden age of the band – than the synth sound adorning later works, but nevertheless, the album is packed with excellent renditions and is sure to win you over if you’re a fan of the band.

Paramore – This is Why

As far as albums go, This is Why ticks all of the right boxes for me. For any long-standing band, it can be hard keeping things fresh, but This is Why’s post-punk leanings and relatively lean run time make it a worthwhile entry for the band. Paramore ensures their sixth LP has everything a fan could ask far – sharp hooks, great melodies, and high-octane songwriting – but these things are now interspersed with well-executed flourishes of post-punk, making for a gloomier experience than we are typically accustomed to. It’s not a perfect album, but it’s definitely their best album since Brand New Eyes, and furthers their successful journey with experimentation.

3TEETH – EndEx

EndEx is an unrelenting return to form, one that lucidly acknowledges the shortcomings pertaining to Metawar. Savagely heavy at times, EndEx understands a lot of what makes 3TEETH’s earlier albums so engaging. What the band have managed to do here is integrate some of that accessibility into this, whilst staying true to their core strengths – creating a varied collection of tracks with an abundance of staying power. “Higher Than Death” and “Drift” in particular proves the band are coming along as songwriters, delivering engaging tracks with the aforementioned accessible elements; while the rest of the album functions on a diet of hypnotic EBM grooves, crunchy riffs, and some of Alexis’ greatest vocal performances to date. Overall, EndEx is a focused and cohesive album that restores the balance, but it’s also an extremely fun to listen to in its own right.

Till Lindemann – Zunge

Ever since Till branched off to make his own music in 2015, he has shown his qualities as a great songwriter, to the point where I have very few doubts anything he releases will be of poor quality. That being said, I wasn’t exactly hyped for Zunge leading up to its release, due in part to F&M stripping Lindemann’s eccentric sound away for a Rammstein-lite sound – as well as the confusing decision to abandon his collaboration with Peter Tägtgren, in an effort to go completely solo. Still, the results speak for themselves; while Zunge has overt Lindemann elements at its core, the record does a lot of other stuff to distinguish itself. The sound in question is essentially Rammstein in a perpetual ‘roid rage. Not that Rammstein’s sound was ever short of heavy riffs, but Zunge just seems to bathe and relish in the heaviest aspects of their sound to the point of parody. Till’s first official solo record successfully amalgamates his proclivities for excess with the classic Rammstein framework, which, as you can imagine, makes for a bloody good time if you’re a fan of either project.             

Nathanael Larochette – Old Growth

I have a lot of time and respect for Nathanael, he’s always trying to push his creativity by exploring aspects of music most tend to overlook. As such, Old Growth’s main objective is to explore compositional simplicity: it’s a collection of skeletal pieces that rely on good, natural atmosphere and the meaty allure of the acoustic guitar to keep the listener gripped. The end result is a wholesome little record that takes you on a rich journey, filled with beauty and melancholy. Each chapter takes you onto another stage and with it, a different emotional hue. Larochette is an excellent songwriter and this album irrefutably displays that – he’s a master at crafting so much from so little. This gambit makes Old Growth’s benign disposition and lean run time an extremely accessible listen, with boatloads of replay value, and should definitely be checked out if you’re into folk music or you’re after something a little different.

Tenhi – Valkama

Looking back on this year’s biggest highlights, it’s apparent to me the folk genre has resonated the loudest – with a handful of truly exemplary albums, all disparate in approach, but equal in their excellence. And so, with 2023 putting a spotlight on just how incredible this genre is, it seems only fitting that the Finnish legends should return and put their two-cents in on the matter. Serendipitously, I started listening to Tenhi in the same year the band decided to break their twelve-year recorded silence, affording me just enough time to get familiar with their incredible discography. To my surprise, given the length of time the band have been away from recording new music, Valkama effortlessly slots into the canon with minimal disruptions. This is because Valkama isn’t here to ruffle the status quo but rather, astutely refine the band’s modus operandi. Ultimately, it’s a tight discussion on whether this is better than Maaaet, but regardless of the hair splitting, a band couldn’t hope to come back with a better sounding album. Valkama’s lush instrumentation, poignant atmosphere and gripping arrangements make it a stellar piece of work, but add Tenhi’s inimitable personality into the equation and you’ve got a very unique offering indeed. Valkama does have a couple of conditions in order to get the most from it – being that it’s seventy minutes long, and has to be heard in its entirety in order to get the full effect – but if you’re willing to dedicate the time to listen to it, entrench yourself in the peregrination being laid before you: the rewards are simply rapturous.       

Thurnin – Útiseta

Útiseta is a special album; it’s a record brimming with vibrant character, and is so captivatingly morish, it’s a quality I feel very few albums have the good-fortune attaining. Up until Útiseta, I’d never heard of Jurre or his folk project, Thurnin. However, Útiseta has made me an avid listener of his ever since. Where does this fervour come from? Well, Menhir is a decent debut album in its own right, but I wouldn’t say it does anything particularly distinguishable in amongst the competition. Útiseta on the other hand is the epitome of realising one’s own potential. It’s clear, listening to the two albums back-to-back, Menhir is a diamond in the rough – a blueprint to study so you can make your next effort sore to the next level. To Jurre’s credit, he has unequivocally nailed the execution and tapped into his potential on Útiseta. This is a legitimately powerful dark folk album with imposing compositional nous and expertly crafted pacing. If it wasn’t for my long-standing obsession with HEALTH, or the brazen artistry at play on A7X’s new album, Útiseta would be at the top spot for 2023. I can’t get enough of its tactile aesthetics, powerful production, immensely gratifying guitar playing, emotive vocal work, and tasteful percussive elements – which make the album a nigh-perfect adventure from start to finish. Absolutely essential listening if you’re into this kind of music.

HEALTH – RAT WARS

Just as 2023 is wrapping itself up, HEALTH decides to drop not only one of the best albums of the year, but their greatest achievement hitherto. Rat Wars is a ruthless assault on the senses, combining their renowned and brutal production style with an all-encompassing embrace for all things metal. The band’s last album toyed with metal elements under a neo-industrial framework, but since dropping the border with Disco4 and allowing bands like Lamb of God and Full of Hell to infiltrate their eclectic sound, they’ve learned a few things and gone all in here. At this point, the gauzy vocal work is the long-standing linchpin for the band and serves to ensure their core DNA is omnipresent, yet, on the whole, this is a punishing full-frontal attack that unapologetically unleashes the heavy elements they’ve been toying with for the last few years now. It’s a juggernaut that has absorbed various industrial metal styles with a hypnotic dance undercurrent – all consistently blanketed in the band’s cinematic melancholy. The end result makes HEALTH’s fifth studio album another fully-realised landmark accomplishment. Typically, December is a drowsy month for albums, leaving music fans the opportunity to ponder over their favourite records from the year, but HEALTH dropped a nuke on everyone’s contemplative state.

Avenged Sevenfold – Life is But a Dream…

Coming from someone who has barely had a good word to say about A7X over the years, other than acknowledging their talent, it comes as a shock Life is But a Dream… is such a brilliant album. Speaking about big bands in the mainstream rock and metal spheres, there’s not a lot going on that’s exciting, and this has been the case for some time now. However, Avenged Sevenfold have blindsided a lot of people with Life is But a Dream… and created a thought-provoking magnum opus that takes a few risks along the way. As I rightly pointed out in my review at the time, Life is But a Dream… was always going to piss off a large portion of its fanbase (as is evident in album sales and fan consensus), by only presenting a meagre portion of the band’s trademark metalcore, but to only look at it from this angle would be myopic. This is an expansive voyage that utilises so many styles of music – from classical, hip-hop, trap, alt-rock, pop and prog to name a few. Simply put, Life is But a Dream… takes no prisoners and is a thrilling experience that infinitely rewards you every time you go back to it. Its steadfast concepts on existentialism and the state of being in the universe are immensely engaging and work well with the plethora of disparate musical styles on offer, but even at its most fundamental level, Life is But a Dream… is an incredibly arranged album and easily the most exciting, layered and powerful experience of not only the year, but quite possibly the decade. If you haven’t listened to Life is But a Dream…, whether it gels with you or not, it’s worth experiencing at least once.

Honourable Mentions

Row 1: Panopticon The Rime of Memory // Paradise Lost: Icon 30 // Daccar-Tchuvz’ Cave: Cold Obedience // Filter: The Algorithm

Row 2: Full of Hell & Nothing: When No Birds Sang // In This Moment: God Mode // Queens of the Stone Age: In Times New Roman… // Godflesh: Purge